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Sunday, 31 July 2016

They can't accuse this blog of not being ahead of its time. It's still only July but I'm already looking at comics with an August cover date on them.

Admittedly, it's an August 1966 cover date but what's a mere fifty years to a man of my quality?

If my memory betrays me not, the Avengers are still in a scientifically advanced hidden land in the Andes which doesn't appear to have any connection with the Inhumans' recently introduced scientifically advanced hidden land in the Andes.

My memories of this one are vague, to put it mildly. Is this the issue where we first get hints of the Masked Marauder's true identity?

In a sensational development, we get the origin of both the Black Panther and Klaw, in one titanic tale.

It's a classic story but I'm not sure what that entity is on the cover. It seems to bear no resemblance to anything that's actually inside the comic.

New penciller Jazzy John Romita arrives with a bang as we get a classic cover and then the reveal of the true identity of Spidey's greatest foe.

This tale clearly has something to do with A.I.M.

Don't ask me what.

I don't have a clue.

In which, even when armed with the Cosmic Cube, the Red Skull still can't get within a million miles of beating Captain America. What a complete and total wally.

Thursday, 28 July 2016

Forty years ago this week, the world was watching from on the edge of its collective seat as the Montreal Olympics was being played out before its televisual gaze.

How we gasped at the running and the jumping and whatever other stuff it was that they got up to.

But, however epic it might have been, none of the sporting heroism on display could compare to the Olympian feats being performed by the stars of Marvel UK at that very moment.

It's excitement all round as Marvel UK's flagship title hits the two hundredth issue mark and does it with a cover that tells me little of its contents.

I do believe the Conan story is the one where he fights a monster made of pebbles and defeats it by using his brain for once. I have no doubt the Hulk story features Wolverine causing yet more trouble and that the Avengers story is yet more of the Kree/Skrull War.

This means I have no idea at all as to what Daredevil is getting up to inside.

I've a suspicion that this issue's main story is The Magick-Man's Last Gasp Purple Light Show.

To be honest, all I really recall of that tale is that Mike Ploog drew, it had a horse-drawn wagon in it and that it had a title that could never be forgotten.

The Ka-Zar story, on the other hand, I remember nothing of, not even its existence.

This is that tale where Spider-Man keeps doing his best to prevent the Molten Man finding a cure for his condition, even though it'd clearly be in everyone's best interests for the Molten Man to find a cure for it.

When the Molten Man showed up in this tale, I must confess I had no knowledge of who he was, his first two appearances in the strip having somehow faded completely from my memory.

Fortunately, he was much more memorable this time around.

The FF do their best to make sure Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men on the moon, seemingly having forgotten that they themselves have already been to the moon and back on several occasions and have Kurrgo's captured flying saucer on their roof, which would allow mankind to go to the moon whenever it wants to.

This time, the trailers are for Justice League and Suicide Squad. So, don't read beyond this point if you don't want to be spoilerised.

Having taken a look at them, I have to say they both look somewhat less promising than the Dr Strange and Wonder Woman movies.

The Justice League one seems to be the better of the two but still feels somewhat lazy and dull with no hint at all as to just what menace it is they're going to be facing. Call me overly-conventional but I do feel that super-hero trailers should make some sort of effort to create the impression that there's actually some sort of peril to our heroes or to others. The trailer's total lack of such menace creates the impression that they're just going to spend the whole movie stood around saying hello to each other. I suspect that may not be the case and that there must be some degree of threat involved at some point in the proceedings.

The portrayal of the Flash looks like it's going to get annoying quite quickly. On the other hand, it's good to see Conan playing Aquaman.

I know I'm going to invite the wrath of all sane humans but, overall, viewing it felt eerily like watching that Justice League TV movie of about twenty years ago; only, shot with more style.

Having said that, I actually enjoyed the Justice League TV movie of about twenty years ago, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

As for Suicide Squad, other than the presence of Will Smith, there's nothing in the trailer that gives me any reason to want to see the movie. It all has a sense of random pointlessness about it that suggests intellectual waywardness on behalf of those who bankrolled it.

Its only other point of interest to me is that Margot Robbie's in it and she used to be in Neighbours and I always find it strangely exciting to see people from Neighbours turn up in American TV shows and movies. The power of Jim Robinson to turn up in seemingly everything over the years has always been a source of wonder to me.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. If you have thoughts on the two movies, feel free to express them in the comments box below.

Sunday, 24 July 2016

No one could accuse me of not keeping my ear to the ground when it comes to the latest movies. Hence it's only taken me five years to get round to watching the first Thor movie, which I enjoyed a fair bit, especially the portrayal of Loki.

Therefore, it's come to my attention that, yesterday, new trailers for two upcoming comic book movies hit YouTube and certain other places. One was the new plug for Wonder Woman and the other was for Dr Strange.

So, let's take a look at those trailers. If you don't want to be spoilerised, don't read on past this point.

Having taken a look at them, I am intrigued by the fact that Wonder Woman takes place in World War One, which somehow feels a more interesting setting than the World War Two milieu that I grew up with and it clearly provides for some dramatic shots.

On the other hand, I hope the entire film isn't just going to be, "Wonder Woman fights World War One," which may prove to be something of a waste of the character's potential for getting into fantastical scrapes.

I also worry that, apart from the vaguely annoying ending, I don't see a lot of characterisation going on in the trailer. I hope we're not going to get a totally by-the-numbers portrayal of our dashing dominatrix and her flyboy boyfriend.

The Dr Strange movie, I'm not sure about. I do feel that Benilux Slumberparty should have been allowed to keep his English accent, as Dr Strange is one of the few Marvel heroes who could work as an Englishman. Plus, I can't hear him do, "American," without thinking of Hugh Laurie in House.

Also, the visuals look to be somewhat lacking in the weirdness I'd like to see from a Dr Strange movie. I see, for instance, no echoes of the visual style of Steve Ditko which so defined the strip.

Initially, I didn't like them replacing the Ancient One with a not-so-ancient Briton but, in retrospect, he was a somewhat clichéd concept, so it may not be a bad idea after all.

The lack of a certain flame-headed demon does, however, disappoint me.

As for which film I feel most tempted to see, I must confess it's the Dr Strange one, as I have more interest in the character than I have for Wonder Woman, even though I probably find the Wonder Woman trailer more intriguing.

That's just my opinion. What's yours? Feel free to use the comments section below to let the world know.

Thursday, 21 July 2016

Holy historians, Batman! Doing these posts is starting to resemble watching one of those time-lapse videos on YouTube, which depict the decline of the Roman Empire via the medium of maps. In this week of 1976, Marvel UK now found itself down to publishing just four comics a week. Could this nightmare mean the end was nigh for the plucky publishing powerhouse?

Fortunately it didn't. Little did we know that, even as circumstances seemed to be growing increasingly straitened, brave new ventures and expansions were just around the corner.

But, for now, what few comics we had were packed with more action and drama than the human mind could hope to withstand.

I'm assuming The Night StakerDracula tale is the one that was clearly based on the Kolchak TV movie of a noticeably similar title.

Was the Man-Thing tale the Mike Ploog drawn one with the ghostly clown hanging around in the swamp and making other characters act out something or other for reasons that escape me?

On other matters, does one detect a Larry Lieber cover?

Opening this issue for the first time was a very exciting moment for me, as The Avengers merged with MWOMand I got my very first taste of Neal Adams' stint on the Kree/Skrull War, as Ant-Man decided to go for a journey around the inner workings of the Vision.

How I was impressed by Adams' fluid draftsmanship, his daring layouts and the embellishments of Tom Palmer.

It's one of the least likely storylines in the history of fiction, as Dr Octopus decides to marry Aunt May in an attempt to get his hands on her nuclear power plant. Heaven only knows what Steve Ditko would have made of it all.

That Iron Man tale vaguely rings a bell. I have a feeling it may have been drawn by Gentleman George Tuska.

The FF take on a creature from space. One that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. By this point, Jolly Jack was making no attempt to disguise from where he was deriving inspiration.

I think this was another issue that I somehow found myself possessing two copies of, meaning I was free to colour one of them in with my coloured pencils. If Marvel UK'd had any sense, they'd have marketed their comics as colouring books and used the monochrome as a selling point.

Sunday, 17 July 2016

June 1978 was clearly an exciting time to be alive. Not only did we see the start of the World Cup in Argentina, the release of the movie Grease, cartoon cat Garfield make his first appearance and the discovery of Pluto's moon Charon, it also featured the debut of the stage musical Evita.

My awesome knowledge of Spanish tells me that, "Evita," means, "Little Eva." Little Eva had a hit in the 1960s, with The Loco-Motion, a song that appears to be exhorting us to dance like a train. Evita tunesmith Andrew Lloyd Webber went on to write Starlight Express which featured actors pretending to be dancing trains.

Coincidence?

Or proof of something altogether more sinister?

As for 2000 AD, June was a momentous month for that mag too, as alien aardvark Tweak made his senses-shattering debut in the pages of Prog 69 and our lives would never be the same again.

The cover of Prog 67 is intriguing. Does this mean M.A.C.H. Zero has now become the protagonist rather than the antagonist? That fellow in the bandages, on the front of Prog 68, looks familiar. Was he some kind of hybrid of Frankenstein's Monster and Deathlok? I still don't remember anything at all about Death Planet.

This concludes my look back at what happened in 2000 AD in June 1978, which I must confess was more of a look back at what happened everywhere except within the pages of 2000 AD. Remember, no other blog gives you posts like this, because no other blog is so clueless about its primary subject matter.

Thursday, 14 July 2016

This week in 1976 was a bad week for Marvel UK, as, following in the footsteps of Savage Sword of Conan and Dracula Lives, yet another of its comics saw its last ever issue. Suddenly, the company would be giving us just four comics a week, compared to its earlier peak of seven.

But does that mean we had reason to be downhearted?

Of course it did.

Not that I knew it. At the time, I was somehow oblivious to this gradual whittling away of the company and still saw Marvel UK as an unstoppable behemoth with an endless and glorious future ahead of it.

I remember having earlier read Iceman's origin in an Alan Class comic.

Admittedly, when I say, "Remember," all I can actually remember is him confronting some angry people outside his parents' house.

Or perhaps that was Cyclops' origin. Or the Angel's. Or possibly Marvel Girl's. Or maybe Professor X's.

The last ever issue of The Avengers sees our heroes bow out in style, with Neal Adams wielding the pencils.

Next week, they'll be in The Mighty World of Marvel instead. Or, as it became known later, The Mighty World of Marvel with the Avengers and the Savage Sword of Conan incorporating Fury and Planet of the Apes with Dracula Lives.
How I recall walking into my local newsagent's and asking for a copy of that comic. In fact, the title was so long that I still haven't managed to finish asking for it yet. I think the newsagent's getting a bit bored of waiting for me to finish. Not to mention the queue that's built up behind me over the last forty years.

Every work of fiction I've ever encountered that features Mount Rushmore has involved there being a secret base hidden in the caves behind the eyeballs.

Sadly, Googling it has revealed to me that there are no caves hidden behind the eyeballs. Why can real life never be as exciting as fiction?

Hooray! It's the Spider-Mobile!

I don't care if its existence made no sense - given that Spidey could get around New York faster without it and all it did was make it easier for the police to find him - I always had a soft spot for it.

Yet another of the Mad Thinker's infallible schemes that's guaranteed to fail.

What I never understood about the Mad Thinker was that even he called himself mad. If he knew he was mad, why did he have so much faith in his own judgement?

Sunday, 10 July 2016

In July 1976, NASA's Viking 1 probe landed on Mars, taking the legendary Face on Mars photo on its way. But, while this was going on in Outer Space, what was happening with our favourite Marvel heroes back on the planet Earth?

Isn't this the story in which Thor flattens Orka while revealing he normally doesn't hit his foes as hard as he could, for fear of hurting them?

Given the threat posed to him by most of his foes, I find this claim very hard to believe.

June 1976 saw the launch of the ITV children's drama series The Feathered Serpent, starring Patrick Troughton and Diane Keen as the world's most Anglo-Saxon Aztecs.

One month later, this comic hits the newsagents.

Coincidence?

Or part of a grand cosmic plan beyond our understanding?

I know nothing of this tale but it certainly looks action-packed.

Isn't this the second time Daredevil's been accused of murdering the Jester?

It's that one where Galactus is using the Destroyer as a herald.

I have a feeling it might have been Thor who put this idea into his head.

If so, it seems a strange thing for Thor to be helping Galactus with.

"The most unexpected barbarian of all!"

I assume that's because, whoever he is, no one's ever heard of him before.

Thursday, 7 July 2016

It's been an exciting week for all football fans, as Wales have taken on Portugal in a European Championship semi-final.

But were our favourite Marvel heroes of exactly forty years ago having to leave the field equally thwarted in their ambitions? Or were they instead dispatching their enemies faster than you can say, "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?"

Just two issues of The Avengers to go but there's still no rest for Conan as he encounters yet another Lovecraftian horror from beyond the other side of sanity.

If I remember right, Terror on the Planet of the Apes was the title of the first Jason and Alexander story. I therefore conclude that this is also a Jason and Alexander story.

I don't have a clue what the Ka-Zar tale is, as I don't remember him ever having problems with a volcano - except for in that tale where World War II is still being acted out by people old enough to know better. As that story was reprinted in a much earlier issue, I assume this is not the tale in question.

It's a landmark issue, as the Punisher makes his shoot-first-ask-questions-later debut.

I believe the Jackal also makes his debut.

This was the issue in which I first noticed that Gil Kane was no longer drawing the strip. I was so observant.

The Hulk gets caught up in a dastardly plot involving the Wendigo and a curse.

I suspect a certain future X-Man may be putting in an appearance before long.

I remember this tale as involving a man with a monocle and a killer camera. I also remember it as not being a classic.

I assume the Captain America tale is the one with Baron Zemo and a deadly death-ray equipped satellite with which he aims to take control of the world.

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About Me

I inflicted the novels "Danny Yates Must Die" and "Mr Landen Has No Brain" on the world, as well as a bunch of short stories under a bunch of pseudonyms.
I also run the blogs "Steve Does Comics" and "Steve Does Dr Who".
My latest novel - "Fatal Inheritance" - is out now on Amazon Kindle. If you like women fighting the forces of evil, it's the book for you.